E. All the Presidents and Congress people over the years who have voted on and/or injected pork projects, foreign involvements, wars, entitlement increases, social programs on and on and on; without planning where the money to pay for it is coming from besides borrowing it, or stealing it from other areas of the government ( such as the SS trust fund) and have allowed the Federal Reserve to control money flow.
Sorry for the run-on sentence, I'm in a hurry

Loy, would you vote for a tax increase? Personally, I think people pay more than their fair share of taxes. When I add up my personal income taxes (actually compensation, not income), property taxes, sales taxes, fuel taxes and all other hidden taxes, fees and tariffs, more than half of my income goes to pay for crap that I may or may NOT want it to.
Out of the remainder I have to plan for retirement and cover the costs of living and even maybe have something left over for a bit of fun. Being responsible is hard work but I can sleep at night knowing that I'm pulling my weight.
Higher taxes would not solve the problem. In fact, higher tax rates would more than likely be counterproductive.
Here's a little piece I wrote and posted to John F Di Leo's FB page:
The jobs market is abysmal and the plan is to raise the borrowing limit even though there's no plan to reduce or eliminate the federal deficit. The Outstanding Public Debt as of 14 Jul 2011 at 11:23:05 PM GMT is: $14,347,032,040,602.92. The estimated population of the United States is 310,934,202 so each citizen's share of this debt is $46,141.70.
I could go on and on with numbers revealing the failures of medicaid and medicare, both wrought with fraud. Roughly 8% of the total population in the United States is supported by Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).
Why should indigent families NEED to receive any money at all? What are the real numbers of the illegal Mexican population in this country performing work that Americans supposedly won't do? They won't do it because they don't HAVE TO.
Kick the illegals out and tell anyone receiving assistance that they'll now do the jobs that the illegals USED to. If they don't want to then they don't need assistance. (I'm not talking about SS or disability. I'm talking about real handouts to people who are perfectly able to work)
There are many reasons why this country is broke and both parties (dems and repubs) are responsible. The bottom line is accountability. There is none at any level of government. It's spend spend spend, regardless of what the tax revenue income is. Responsible people don't borrow what they can't pay back in order to survive. They live within their means and they have a BUDGET.
Things are not going to get better any time soon. In fact, they'll likely become worse for a long time. This country is bankrupt and so are a lot of other countries. Until there's a responsible budget and until we all suffer the pain of paying down the deficit, there's no cure in sight.
Our "elected" officials no longer seem to represent those who voted for them. They represent their own interests and the interests of lobbying groups who buy their favors. Government is out of control of itself.

Loy, bottom line, spending is the problem along with the jobs market being in the crapper. When you ship all of the jobs out of a country, that country is bound to suffer a bit of financial difficulty, don't you think?

It's time voters looked at those amplified voices of clowns like Grover Norquist as seditionists who have cornered elected officials with their no new tax pledges. They have effectively abandoned their duties constitutional oaths of office and have sworn allegience to an individual that has clearly stated it's his intention to bring down the U.S. government, to quote Grover Norquist "my intention is to starve the government and shrink it until it's small enough to drown in a bath tub". Those elected officials who follow his dictates are either cowards for fearing the pipsqueaks like Norquist and his crowd or traitors who are engaging in acts of sedition.

It is the fault of both parties, but that reflects directly at us as citizens of this country since we are the ones that elect them over and over again. Rep and Dem alike they both like to spend money that we don’t have. It’s sad that Politicians from both parties in Washington put their own interests above that of what’s best for the country. We do need something that forces us to have a balanced budget, but in the same regard we cannot allow ourselves to default on our current debts. For the time being we are still the most powerful country in the world we should be able to pay our debts.
I think we should put a focus on why we are in the situation we are in. Instead of just trying to spend more tax payer money to make people complacent with being out of work or under employed. How come all the politicians seem to ignore the fact that China used to be a 3rd world country till they started making all of our stuff now they are loaning us the money we paid them for making our stuff. So we can buy more stuff from them and pay them interest on top of it. Same with higher tech jobs they were supposed to stay in country when Manufacturing went overseas. Well most of them are in India and other APAC countries now also.
Doug you are completely correct people don’t do the jobs because they don’t have too. Why would anyone want to spend all day in the sun picking fruit for low pay, when the taxpayers will pay them to stay home? If people had the choice to work or starve they would work to provide for their families. I’m not for cutting support for families but we need to make sure people that can work are working even if they feel the job is below them.

I try to be pretty middle of the road with my political opinions but I don't know how anyone can blame the current president or even most current congress people (either party). This is a problem that started decades ago, so we need to stop battling over whose fault it is and work on getting it fixed. 1 Billion dollars a month in the Middle East isn't helping either. (by the way, whose idea was that War ....).

Loy; We have record revenues in this country, which doesn't mean a thing when spending outpaces it. The deficit has doubled under Obama, not that I'm a fan of Bush either... but to suggest that we need to pay more taxes is insane. We live with our belts tightened in our own homes. There is no reason our elected officials can't
Why do we continually elect the same breed of candidate? Because we aren't offered many choices, that's why. The game is rigged by the political machine that is run by both parties.
I'm a Ron Paul guy. He's been right on since he called the housing collapse back in 2002, but the GOP called him a loon for it. Who's laughing now? He's light years ahead on fiscal policy and sound money, but everyone keeps ignoring him. We better listen up soon because, food prices are consuming upto 70% of European household incomes right now and hyperinflation is on the way for us too...

Yes, I would vote for certain types of tax increases. Specifically, I'm a strong advocate of flat tax. Everybody pays 10%; the government learns to live within those means. But that means a whole lotta corporations and hedge fund managers who currently pay less will have to pony up. How does 10% compare to your current tax rate? Surprisingly, it takes only 17% flat tax to match our current spending. So you'll note that I advocate cutting spending as well.
But for years, politicians of all stripes have been claiming that lowering or exempting taxes on corporations and wealthy businessmen will create jobs ... and how's that working for ya? The unemployment rate is what, again?
Definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

For the last 10 years we've fought 2 wars (justified or not) and brought the economy back from the brink of death and put it all on the national credit card. The bill has come due and now it's time to pay.
If this were a household, a responsible person would be getting a second job to supplement the family income.
For the nitwit republicans in congress to say that they will not support any increase in taxes on their wealthy brethren is nothing short of irresponsible.
I'll be the first to admit that there are ample opportunities to cut wasteful spending in the federal budget but for the congressional republicans to take the position they have is shameful.
I sincerely hope that reason will prevail and a measure can be crafted that will cut spending responsibly while increasing revenue by making those who have benefited the most pay their fair share.

For so many supposed smart people on here you don't get it. We are the blame for this mess, all of us. We can blame the polititans but we elected them. Through out the years we have killed our industry with nonsence rules and regulations, just to see them sent overseas. We have allowed our raw resources to be sold off. We shop the cheepest nomater where it comes from as long as its cheep. We demand the goverment give us this or that. When someone comes along with the guts to say look at this you run them down as loons. If someone threatens your little piece of the pie you screem bloody murder. We throw money at people to control them and tell them oh look how we are helping you vote for our party. I know I am not very smart but gee if a dummy like myself can see it why can the rest of you? we need to get rid of the tax loopholes, stop regulating our industry out of existance, Stop destroying the family,Stop demanding the goverment throw money at the lazy, The United States needs to wake up or it will be to late. Get back to the basics of what the Federal goverment is suppose to be, not micro managing our everyday lives. I will bet that everyone of us knows at least one person that lives on ssi or whatever program that could work but why when the goverment will take care of you. Stop being the police of the world its not our job. Protect our borders for security sake. Stop being Republican or Democrat and be an American!